Prescribed Burning Photos

These competent folks are all members of the Southern Illinois Prescribed Burn Association, an organization of landowners who have banded together to help each other with management burns on prairie and forest.

We use ATVs to carry water, tools and people. Before we had ATVs, firefighters carried water in five gallon backpack pumps. We use mowed lines, water, and flappers to hold the line on praire burns. The method with backpack pumps and flappers is to spray a patch with water, then cover it with a flapper to snuff it and cool it. The ATV makes this process go much faster and easier. We spray in front to the tires, and run over the fire to snuff it. You can hit a section of fire line repeatedly without standing in the smoke and heat, which means you stay fresh all day and do not have a monoxide headache the next morning.

We string fire with drip torches, which use a mix of diesel fuel and gasoline. The person doing this job has to stay in touch with the rest of the crew visually and with his radio. We start out with a backing fire on the downwind side of the burn area, and during this phase, the torch person has to watch the work going on behind him, being careful not to outrun the people controlling the fireline.

These workers are on their feet all day, but doesn't this look like fun? I understand that in Texas they do this from the back of a horse.

This is a backing fire working its way against the wind.

As the black area grows wider, the line becomes safer.

There can be lots of heat and smoke on the downwind side. The ATVs sure are an improvement over hiking the line in the smoke with water on your back.

Safe, black line.

We burned five fields in one day with a crew of nine, using four ATVs.

The flanking fires are lit after the downwind side is safe. The wind is running nearly parallel to the flanks; the fire burns hotter, and moves faster.

The work goes at a much faster pace on the flanks.

Woody vegetation being cooked off.

After the outer flanks are burned in, you can light parallel flanking fires. These keep the fire cooler, and they move slower than a wide head fire, killing large woody stems to the ground more effectively.

In this photo you can see a flank fire on the left, and a head fire beginning its run. Note the thicker smoke coming off the head fire.

A head fire runs with the wind. You do not want to be in front of this.

Head fires cover ground in a hurry.

Autumn olives cooking. These are non-native/invasive plants that will take over grass land.

The desired effect. Prairie and abandoned pasture land that is not burned becomes impenetrable in a few years when autumn olive becomes established. Fire is the cheapest method to keep it under control. We also use fire in timber to promote regeneration of the desirable oaks and hickories.